women's reservation bill
reserving one-third seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures
has got through the Rajya Sabha but it has polarised politics and civil
society.

The government, which was
taken aback by the unprecedented bedlam over the bill in the Rajya Sabha,
has promised to hold an all-party meeting before it takes the legislation
to the Lok Sabha. The main political opponents of the bill--Mulayam Singh
Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav--say the
bill will help the rich and privileged and not the poor disadvantaged.
The bill is an onion that will "bring tears to MPs once they peel it off,"
says Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad.

Supporters of the bill say
the bill--formally called the 108th Constitution Amendment Bill--is necessary
to increase the representation of women in Parliament, which stands at
just 10 per cent even after 15 elections.

Is the bill good for women
or not? Is there a better way to increase the number of women lawmakers?
CNN-IBN's Sagarika Ghose asked this to Jayanthi Natarajan, Rajya Sabha
MP and Congress spokesperson, Mohini Giri, former chairperson of the National
Commission for Women, Manini Chatterjee, editor of The Telegraph in Delhi,
Madhu Kishwar, editor of Manushi, and Ragini Nayak, activist and former
president of the Delhi University Students Union.

Why reservation?Natarajan believed women
need reservation in Parliament and state legislatures because society is
“paternalistic” and it is difficult for them to contest and win elections
against the “established and entrenched male chauvinistic order in the
society”.

“Unless this quota is given
there will never be a chance of enough women in decision-making places,
such as Parliament and the state assemblies,” said Natarajan.

Kishwar, who has drafted
an alternative to the bill, claimed the success rate of women candidates
is almost twice as high compared to men candidates in all elections. “Voters
in India don't discriminate against women, if anything they have a preference
for female candidates. It is party bosses and the entrenched culture of
crime and corruption in all our political parties that is marginalizing
not just women but also honest men,” said Kishwar.

“It is parties that need
to be democratized and made accountable--rid of crime, corruption and violence.
They must give women a level-playing field in the allocation of tickets,”
said Kishwar.

She believed that if parties
gave a certain number of election tickets to women then perhaps the Lok
Sabha and state assemblies would have seventy-five percent women lawmakers
elected on merit. “The zanana dabba (women's compartment) of 33 per cent
reservation won’t be needed,” said Kishwar.

Nayak agreed that Kishwar’s
suggestion of reservation in parties was more progressive but it had never
happened.

Reservation of seats is a
better alternative because parties cannot be forced to allot tickets, said
Giri. The bill will enable women to have “easier access” to elections because
they will not have to fight criminals and muscle power, she said.

Aid to women or crutches? That’s the problem, said
Manini Chatterjee. The “easier” way to Parliament demeans women. “In every
other field women have fought on the basis of merit. It has not been an
easy fight but what you (women) need is a level-playing field at the entry
level. You don’t need a top landing at the apex level,” said Chatterjee.

Parties will not give women
tickets even if they are threatened with deregistration, said Natarajan.
“In all political parties when the time comes for candidates to be chosen,
the people who decide say this (women) is not a winning candidate. For
62 years that is what we have faced. If you force parties they will give
women losing seats. This (bill) is by no means patronizing or disrespectful
(to women),” she said.

Giri argued that the 33 reservation
is needed because every where in the country “wife beating, female foeticide
and everything that is against women” is going on.

Chatterjee refused to buy
the man against woman argument. “That all women face the same kind of oppression
is a pernicious argument,” she said. “It is a very elitist argument through
which you can appear to be progressive, because you are for gender justice
but it is a way of suppressing other forms of injustice.

“All the women who were at
the forefront during the Rajya Sabha debate--it is just common sense that
they are far better off every which way than millions of men in this country,
so I don’t buy this woman-man argument totally.”

There was a “moral halo”
around women’s rights before Independence, said Kishwar. “Why have we have
lost it in a manner that we have these ugly scenes and stalemate in Parliament?
It has something to do with the fact women who are entering politics are
not living up to the expectations that the freedom movement had of them.

Instead of bringing cleaner
and better politics many of them are outdoing men in crime and corruption.
They are acting as proxies for their husbands,” she said.

Natarajan agreed that the
women MPs who led the debate in the Rajya Sabha were privileged. “I initiated
the debate in the Rajya Sabha for the Congress but this reservation is
not for people like me. I am happy to announce that I will not take the
advantage of a reserved seat but it is for women who will not have the
same kind of advantages.

“Women are deeply divided
but in every caste, community and class they are the most suppressed and
the least able to fight elections and join the electoral process,” said
Natarajan.

But Chatterjee saw “no justification”
for gender-based quota in Parliament. “I think this will open up a Pandora's
box, because all kinds of interest groups will ask for quota in Parliament.
If Sonia Gandhi and others believe women vote as women as a constituency
then there is going to be demand for quota in every field of endeavour.
I shudder to think then what India is going to be 10 years from now,” she
said.

Giri believed doubts and
fears about the bill were groundless. It's a historical moment--we should
not let it lose. Give a chance to women," she said.Source IBN